Pinto Bean Pie Ain’t Strange

Pinto bean pie is awesome, says lisafaz: “A student’s mom brought me in some one year. She told me what it was, and I didn’t really want to try it, but I couldn’t offend and NOT try it either. I took a deep breath and gave it a chance.” Turns out it’s great, especially served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. lisafaz’s pie is just mashed pintos, sugar, eggs, and butter, but todao thinks pecans and coconut are required to make this pie as glorious as it can be. Bean pies, especially navy bean pies, are a classic dish in black Muslim communities, says stilton.

The sweet bean pie bears some similarity to Asian dishes that include sweet adzuki beans. And it reminds jill kibler of a Dominican sweet bean dessert, served at Easter, with coconut milk and cinnamon. Ruth Lafler had some navy bean pie from a vendor at a market in Baltimore: “It was delicious,” she says. “And yeah, it was a little like some of the sweet bean Asian desserts.”